Call on hold service is old and well known. Typically, when a party wishes to place another party on hold, the party placing the call on hold presses the hold button on his telephone. That telephone, or the associated PABX or central office switch, then maintains the connection to the other party while allowing the party who placed the call on hold to hang up. Such call on hold services also typically provide music or an announcement on hold feature, which causes music or voice to be played over the line to the party placed on hold. Such call on hold services are useful to the party who places the call on hold, but they are often a cause of discontent to the party who has been placed on hold, even if he is provided with music to listen to, while on hold.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an on-hold service that provides the person placed on hold with the ability to access information while on hold, rather than suffer the discontent associated with being placed on hold and having nothing to do but wait for the other party to return to the call.